“Ariana, it is a pleasure to have you at our table,” Raj Vich said, oozing all charm and grace.
“Thank you. It is a pleasure to join you.”
“Tell us, Triumvir Ariana, how is your country?”
A ripple of tension ratcheted through the man sitting next to her. Sin had purposefully omitted that she was a triumvir. Vich had just, quite purposefully she had no doubt, exposed her for who she truly was.
“It is well, last I heard.”
“But surely you must miss your home country,” Vich said smoothly.
“A great deal. But I hope to see it again very soon,” she said with a small smile.
“Do you indeed?” Vich was all surprise. Or feigned surprise. It was clear by his arch behaviors that he had some kind of personal agenda where she was concerned. She realized then that everything he had just said had undermined his brother in some way. She found she didn’t like the idea of it in the least. Even though making her true self known to others was in her best interest, she didn’t care for the idea that Vich was somehow trying to get a leg-up over his brother.
“Yes. But in the meantime I am enjoying my visit in your country.”
“Your…visit?” again that arch tone.
“Yes. Your brother has been kind enough to play the role of host. I hope to see more of your fine country and its peoples.”
“Well, but for two autumns ago this had all been your country. Have you never visited it before?”
“Not this particular corner of it. It was not very settled, which is one of the reasons we were not so loathe to part with it.”
“Yes, my brother did make quite the bargain, getting us all this wild country. It is taking quite an effort to see it settled. Our Anima shamans, who are the equivalent of your Padoni majji, are having to learn all new ways of growing things in nature. They are used to making rocky shale and soil produce what little homegrown crops we had. This richer loam is not nearly so temperamental, but it is taking some learning. Plus, the weather plays a factor. We have tremendous weather events here. That requires the use of the Weath, our weather shamans. Farmers can hire both shamans to maximize their crop output, but they don’t come cheap and they can’t perform miracles. It takes time and energy and a great many resources to make this land produce. Even so we have yet to yield a decent crop. I only hope next autumn is better…elsewise it would seem you got the far better end of our deal.”
It was a judgment and an insult, Ariana realized. And yet Sin let it slide. For some reason she felt compelled to come to Sin’s defense.
“Learning to work the soil is only a matter of time and patience,” she assured Vich. “I am only sorry that more Sarens did not volunteer to guide you as we had hoped they would. I suppose there were just too many bad feelings all around.”
“We did offer your Padoni majji handsome recompense, but alas the war left them too bitter to consider the riches we could offer them.”
“We are making our own way,” Sin said.
“Yes, but quite slowly. Why with all the expense we are putting out, it will be no wonder if we starve to death before we ever see a single bumper crop.”
“I’m sure it isn’t as bad as all of that,” Ariana said, trying not to talk through her teeth. If Sin could keep his temper in check, then so could she. “As a matter of fact, I know it isn’t. For I have seen the ledgers myself. Kilt remains quite prosperous.”
“You have seen…?” Raj Vich couldn’t conceal his shock. “My brother shares intimate details of the workings of our government with you?”
Oh dear. That wasn’t what she had wanted to do at all. She was trying to defend Sin, not give Vich more fodder for his workings against him.
“Yes. Raja Sin has been kind enough to help us. You see, we are thinking of implementing a tariff on all of our imported goods, but we have no model on which to base our system. Your brother had provided the intimate details of a working—and might I add flourishing—economy with a tariff basis.”
“That is very kind of you Raja Sin,” one of the ambassadors said. “Perhaps you would be kind enough to show us as well?”
“Perhaps,” Sin said shortly. “I would not make a habit of showing such details to just anyone. Ariana is a leader of her people. An equal. If your leaders were to come themselves as she has, I would wholly consider the possibility.”
“Harea,” Ariana said brightly, changing the topic away from its current bent. “You are due soon?”
“Any day now,” Vich said for her. “She will give me my third son.”
“Are you so certain then that it is a boy?” she asked with a smile.
“It makes no matter either way,” Vich said with a careless wave. “I’ve got my heir, and a second son to boot.” Which is more than I can say for my brother, was the unspoken remark in the room.
“What does a man need with so many wives and concubines? In our culture we take only one husband or wife.”
“Pregnant wives and concubines are a sure sign of a man’s virility,” Vich said proudly. “It is our duty to provide many sons for the royal line.”
“It seems as though this was an unwise thing to do when you were so crowded before this. One would think you would make effort to keep the population down.”
“Only royals may take multiple wives and concubines.”
“Is it required?” Ariana asked. For some reason a vicious stab of jealousy went through her at the idea of having to share Sin with other women. The thought shocked her. He was not hers! She could not make any demands on him. But she would be damned if she was going to be one of many women in his life, only of interest until the bloom rubbed off.
Confused by her feelings, she hardly heard Sin’s reply.
“No. Not required. For instance, our father only ever took our mother to his bed and his heart.” She looked at him and could see the intensity in his eyes. As if he was trying to say “As I would do to you.”
She blushed under the regard of his speaking eyes. A plate of food was put down in front of her, and she picked up her utensils, but she simply stared down at the fare, not really seeing it. She didn’t know what to make of herself. Of these odd feelings swirling about inside of her. There was such a study in contradictions. On the one hand she was hoping someone would come and rescue her from this fate…on the other thinking maybe…perhaps it was not such a bad fate after all. Her entire body was thrumming with awareness of the man sitting next to her.
“Harea will become thirdwife if she produces a son. Only concubines who give birth to sons may become wives,” Arud said. There was a kindly bend to the woman’s head. Unlike Vich’s wives who seemed to be a little bit above their company.
“How many wives can you have?” Ariana asked.
“Up to five. Raj Vich may not take any more wives or concubines until one of us is no longer here or is proved barren by going five autumns or more without producing a child. In that case the wife or concubine would be put aside and retired,” Caran said. “Save the mother of the heir of course. She will always be firstwife.”
“Unless the son dies,” Kindah said, smiling sweetly.
“Yes then the secondwife becomes firstwife and on down in a ripple effect. Firstwife, in this case, would become secondwife…or thirdwife depending on whether Harea produces a son before such a terrible tragedy occurred.”
“But we will not talk of my son’s death,” Vich said stormily. “The entire line of succession rest on his shoulders after mine.”
“That is…until Raja Sin has a son and heir,” Harea said softly.
Everyone looked to her then and she flushed uncomfortably. It was clear everyone on that end of the table knew what Sin expected of her. She did not like it.
“But first I must find a woman worthy enough to become firstwife. It must be someone extraordinary. Someone who could rule equally by my side.”
“No woman could ever rule equal to you, brother,” Vich said with a scoffing sound. “No woman could ever rule our peopl
e.”
“Mother did so,” Sin reminded him in a sharp dig.
“That was different. She was raji-mother, ruling in your stead until you were of age. And even so you were of age in only five autumns. You were already wise enough and powerful enough to be ruling. It was more like she was aiding your rule. You were far above others even at fifteen autumns. But perhaps someone of Kiltian birth could aid you in your rule by providing you comfort and ease, but surely no woman could be allowed full power over the fate of the Kiltian government. Not even that, should you do the unthinkable and take a foreign bride.”
Sin made a hard movement in his chair, as if to push it back, lunge out of it and throttle his brother. But Ariana’s hand came to rest over the one that was gripping his knife in a strangling hold, calming him. He looked at her with questioning eyes but she merely smiled and said to Vich, “I think perhaps you need foreign blood in your royal house. Royal foreign blood. A princess perhaps. One who knows the workings of a court and what it means to rule a people. Then you will have the best of both worlds. A woman who can rule in her own right, and a treaty of peace with the country she comes from for all the rest of her days. There are many such women who would jump at the chance to become a queen at your brother’s side.”
“But as a woman of power and of foreign blood, surely such an idea would not appeal to you. So why would you expect it to appeal to others?” Vich said.
“Why would it not appeal to me? It would very much appeal to me… if I was not a ruler to my people in my own right. My people need me. I have already assumed a mantle of power. However, a foreign princess who has not assumed a role of power as yet would make an ideal wife and would no doubt find such an offer very attractive.”
“If only my brother would consider taking such a wife. We are beginning to despair of him ever taking a bride and producing an heir.”
“Your brother cannot be rushed in these matters,” Ariana said. “Finding such a wife will take time and care. These are not choices a man makes on a whim.”
“Far be it from my brother to act on impulse,” Vich said with a smirk over his implication that his brother had done exactly that.
However the more she thought about it, the more she understood her abduction had not been an impulsive act. He had had two autumns to think of what he would do. He had built the room in which she was staying, and he had planned her actual abduction down to the last detail. He had thought about what kind of woman he had wanted and, after all these years of ruling alone without the comfort and aide of a woman, he had finally chosen someone to be by his side.
He had chosen her.
She was extraordinarily flattered by the act. She was surprised to find herself feeling that way. It was, of course, out of the question…but still. To be chosen above all others by this selfless, extraordinary man…it was the highest of compliments.
“No,” she said. “Your brother puts much thought into everything he says and does. It is the mark of an extraordinary ruler. Few others could boast such a trait.”
She felt his surprised eyes on her and she was glad of his regard. She felt this undeniable urge to let him know how much her opinion of him had changed. She looked at him through her lashes. His gaze was hot and fierce, full of…of pride. And more. Full of his passion for her. There may as well have not been anyone else in the room, that was how ferocious his regard of her was.
She finished her meal, but barely tasted a thing. Her skin felt hot and uncomfortable on her body and she felt the need to keep shifting in her seat. However, she did sharply parry his brother’s every attempt to stab at Sin’s back. For Sin’s part, he did not lose his temper again. He seemed now to be comforted by her very presence next to him. Again she wondered that he didn’t defend himself against his brother…save that moment he had almost lost control.
“When will you be returning back home?” Raj Vich asked her, another of those knowing smirks on his lips. It was a very unattractive expression. It thinned out his mouth, made his eyes seem beady and mocking. Unlike his brother, there was nothing handsome about his features to recommend him to a woman. Not in her opinion anyway. But clearly he was attractive to other women because he had a harem full of them. Or perhaps it was his power that made him so appealing to others.
“That has not been decided as yet,” she said graciously when Sin stiffened beside her. She once again laid a light comforting hand on his. “I find I am having such a nice time here that I may not want to leave any time soon.”
That shut his brother up resoundingly. If he had expected her to start screaming she was a prisoner, she was glad to disappoint him. It was clear she had surprised Sin as well. He turned his hand up and caught her fingers in a light, barely there squeeze. A silent communication that he was pleased with her behavior. She had not done it to please him…rather to…to…
To protect him. She was guarding him, she realized. Protecting him from his brother’s attacks. Why would she do that? A week ago she would have happily joined Vich in tearing his brother down. But now…
Confused by her own reactions, she rose when everyone else did. In Saren the men would have retired to the study or the library for port or brandy and the ladies to a parlor. In Kilt they said goodnight at the dinner table…and she was glad of it. Dueling with his brother had been exhausting, but she felt very accomplished in her work of the night.
“I will walk you to your room,” Sin said to her as he kissed his mother’s cheek and bid her goodnight.
“Are you certain you don’t wish me to come with you?” his mother asked archly.
“No. That is all right. Please, find your bed and have good dreams,” Ariana said, reaching out to squeeze the older woman’s hand.
They parted ways in the hall and Sin lightly cupped her elbow in his hand as he led her past darkened corridors. Then, before they were in sight of the guard outside her door, he pulled her into one of the dark shadowed doorways and swept her into his arms and against his body. Their breath began to rush rapidly as he stared down into her eyes.
“You are a remarkable creature,” he swore vehemently.
“Why do you let him attack you like that?” she asked on a breathy whisper. “In front of so many witnesses? You should put him in his place.”
“Why should I when I have you to do it for me?” he asked softly, his hand coming up to brush light fingers down the length of her neck. She shivered at the ghosting erotic touch. His fingers drifted down into the square of her neckline, skating in a barely-there caress over the very tops of her breasts.
“Was that your goal? To see if I would defend you?” She frowned to think of him working such machinations.
“No. No, that was a delightful surprise. I resist countering my brother’s less than veiled attacks because I do not wish for those visitors to my court to see contention in the ranks of my household and think we are weaker for it.”
“So it is better that he undermine your rule?” she asked skeptically.
“Normally I would have riposted the way you did, but I confess I was distracted by other things.”
“Other things?” she asked breathily as his knuckles turned and drifted down the slope of her breast, brushing back and forth over her nipple until it stood out in a hard point.
“Yes,” he hissed. “The same thing that has haunted me every minute since yesterday night. The sight of you naked in bed. Every time I look at you I see this bare, beautifully pale white skin, the rosy tips of your nipples begging for my attention and lower,”—his hand drifted down the front of her body, over her belly and onto her pubis—“these fiery red curls hiding everything away from me. Begging to be explored.”
“But you did not. You walked away and left me,” she reminded him. She gasped when his fingers sought for her through the fabric of her skirt. Without realizing she had done so, she parted her thighs and allowed him limited access.
“Because that is not how I want you. I do not want you to mindlessly give yourself to me so that yo
u can renege and blame me for it. I want you to come to me as a powerful, independent woman who knows her own needs and wants. I want those needs and wants to be me. I want to be the only one who can satisfy them.”
With that he dipped his head and caught up her mouth with his. This kiss was different than the ones previous. They were animalistic and wild, this kiss was more measured and burning. He kissed her until she was boneless in his arms, her weight his to bear. Suddenly he broke his mouth from hers and bent down. He was back up in just a second, but now his hand was beneath her skirt, his fingertips sweeping up over the skin of her thighs, insinuating themselves between her legs. His finger raked through her curls as he kissed her once more. She gasped when his fingers glided into damp feminine folds, seeking expertly at the heart of her. Ariana knew she should protest. That she should push him away, but the heat swirling through her was so magnificent. She felt weak and wonderful and his touch was casting a spell over her.
“Sin!” she moaned. “Please!”
“Please what? Please you?” he asked hotly. “I can please you, Ariana…if you’ll just let me.”
He sought for, and found the little bud of nerves that gave her pleasure and her spine curved as she went wet against his fingertips.
“Ah God,” he groaned against her ear. “You’re so hot and so wet. I think about being here,” –he slid a finger inside her body—“all of the time. I’m obsessed with it. I think about hearing you come. Hearing you cry out my name.” His lips brushed the shell of her ear as he whispered into it. “It makes me so hard and I can barely see anything else within my mind.” His finger slid deeper into her and she let out a little cry, her hand going to the wrist of the hand burrowing beneath her skirts. But she wasn't trying to push him away. Just the opposite. She was holding him to herself, riding his hand as his palm rubbed against her clit and a second finger slid into her.